Date: 14/02/2021 13:56:10
From: mollwollfumble
ID: 1695476
Subject: Oldest known Earth rock - cat scan.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210203.html

> Was the oldest known Earth rock found on the Moon? Probably. The story opens with the Apollo 14 lunar mission. Lunar sample 14321, a large rock found in Cone crater by astronaut Alan Shepard, when analyzed back on Earth, was found to have a fragment that was a much better match to Earth rocks than other Moon rocks.

> Even more surprising, that rock section has recently been dated back 4 billion years, making it older, to within measurement uncertainty, than any rock ever found on Earth. A leading hypothesis now holds that an ancient asteroid impact on Earth launched rocks into the Solar System, some of which fell back to the Moon, became mixed with heated lunar soil and other rocks, cooled, and re-fragmented. The video features an internal X-ray scan of 14321 showing multiple sections with markedly different chemistries. Moon rocks will continue to be studied to learn a more complete history of the Moon, the Earth, and the early Solar System. Last Friday marks the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 14 landing on the Moon.

https://youtu.be/V0UBZh6Hf-s

Reply Quote

Date: 14/02/2021 20:42:01
From: Bubblecar
ID: 1695687
Subject: re: Oldest known Earth rock - cat scan.

Interesting. Apparently it’s only a small clast of the specimen they’re talking about. The whole stone weighs about 9kg and is one of the larger Apollo samples.

Reply Quote

Date: 14/02/2021 21:48:38
From: mollwollfumble
ID: 1695723
Subject: re: Oldest known Earth rock - cat scan.

Bubblecar said:


Interesting. Apparently it’s only a small clast of the specimen they’re talking about. The whole stone weighs about 9kg and is one of the larger Apollo samples.

Thanks. :-)

A clast on the surface, perhaps? Because it doesn’t look as though they have physically delved under the surface.

I would be very interested in any carbon present in an Earth rock from that age.

Reply Quote